Quaternary ammonium hydroxide such as tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) and tetraethyl ammonium hydroxide (TEAH) are strong organic bases that have been known for many years. Such quaternary ammonium hydroxides have found a variety of uses including use as a titrant for acids in organic solvents and as a supporting electrolyte in polarography. Aqueous solutions of quaternary ammonium hydroxides, particularly TMAH solutions, have been used extensively as a developer for photoresists in printed circuit board and microelectronic chip fabrication. Use of quaternary ammonium hydroxides in the electronics area requires that there be no residue following the normal post-bake period. In electronic applications, it is desirable that the aqueous solutions of quaternary ammonium hydroxides should be essentially free from metal ions such as sodium and potassium, and halides such as chlorine, bromine, iodine, etc. Particularly in recent years, there has been an increasing demand for quaternary ammonium hydroxides having a high purity.
Quaternary ammonium hydroxides such as TMAH and TEAH have been produced by various techniques. Generally, the quaternary ammonium hydroxides are manufactured by electrolyzing a salt of a quaternary ammonium in an electrolysis cell containing a diaphragm formed of a cation-exchange membrane. The quaternary ammonium salts used in such preparations include halogenated salts, carboxylate salts, carbonate salts and sulfate salts. When halogenated salts are used in the manufacture of quaternary ammonium hydroxide, it has been discovered that the quaternary ammonium hydroxide solutions formed by this method contain significant amounts of halogen (ionic and latent), generally in concentrations above 50 ppm and more generally above 100 ppm. The term "latent halide" is used throughout this specification and claims to refer to non-ionic halide which is present in the aqueous quaternary ammonium hydroxide solutions, and which is capable of forming halide ions under certain conditions such as, e.g., heating. The precise nature or form of the latent halide is not known at this time.
Among the prior art patents which describe the preparation of quaternary ammonium hydroxides by electrolyzing a salt of a quaternary ammonium compound are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,572,769 and 4,394,226. U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,769 describes the use of formate salts to form the quaternary ammonium hydroxides, and this patent suggests that some of the problems of using quaternary ammonium halides are minimized by use of the formate salt. U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,226 describes production of quaternary ammonium hydroxides in electrolytic cells using cationic membranes which have been treated with a mineral acid prior to use in the electrolysis.